


veil torn (now I'm seeing your lies)

by MYuzuki



Series: No matter what’s in front of me (I’ll keep fighting til I’ve won) [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XV, Kingsglaive
Genre: (thanks to time travel), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Angst and Tragedy, Betrayal, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:15:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26141698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MYuzuki/pseuds/MYuzuki
Summary: Somehow, Nyx manages to not stab Titus Drautos in the face the second he sees him.
Relationships: Titus Drautos | Glauca & Nyx Ulric
Series: No matter what’s in front of me (I’ll keep fighting til I’ve won) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897525
Comments: 10
Kudos: 139





	veil torn (now I'm seeing your lies)

**veil torn (now I** **'m seeing your lies)**

* * *

Somehow, Nyx manages to not stab Titus Drautos in the face the second he sees him.

He _wants_ to, of course, wants it with a burning sort of fury that sizzles in his veins but he takes all that rage and betrayal and pain and buries it down deep, where it can smolder instead of erupting.

(He still remembers that moment where everything had fallen apart and everything he'd thought he'd known had come crashing down around his ears because _Titus Drautos was General Glauca_ and he hadn't realized, wouldn't have even guessed at the horrible, gut-wrenching truth.

 _No one_ had realized it, and Nyx can't decide if he finds that comforting because it means Nyx wasn't the only one so tragically duped or horrifying because even the King and his most trusted advisors hadn't sensed anything amiss with the Commander of the Kingsglaive.)

Unfortunately, as much as he wants to hurl himself at the traitor and tear him into pieces all over again, Nyx knows that he has to keep calm. Because no one else knows (yet) that Drautos is a turncoat and if Nyx slaughters his commanding officer without proof to back up his claims he's going to find himself summarily executed before the day is out.

So instead he focuses on the task at hand: convincing Drautos to give him The Mission.

It takes some convincing, but honestly not as much as it probably _should_. Definitely not as much as it would take were the assignment _really_ a mission to escort Princess Lunafreya. It helps, he thinks, that the Drautos of this time -before their battle to the death in the ruins of Insomnia- views him as little more than a loyal Glaive with a smart mouth, strong and skilled and occasionally insubordinate.

(He refuses to think about how Drautos had praised him on occasion, exasperated with the way Nyx's confidence seemed to border on arrogance at times but still viewing him with something like pride whenever he warped his way across a battlefield and helped his comrades tear through enemy soldiers.

He refuses to think about how Drautos had always seemed almost gruffly paternal towards the Glaives as a whole, grouching and snarling at them to do better whenever they faltered even as he offered them support and guidance and did his best to make sure they all made it home in one piece.

Titus Drautos was everything a commanding officer should be and it makes Nyx want to throw up _because all of it was a lie.)_

Here and now, Drautos probably looks at him and sees nothing more than an earnest soldier he can use as a pawn in his scheme. Perhaps he thinks Nyx is trying to make up for the perceived blunder of refusing to retreat in the battle against that Cerberus (Nyx, personally, does not regret ignoring that order and never will; if he hadn't thrown himself into that fight, Libertus would have been killed, and that's unacceptable). Perhaps he thinks Nyx is looking for glory, to increase his own reputation.

Ultimately, Nyx can't fathom what Drautos is thinking, but in the end it doesn't matter.

Drautos agrees to give him the mission, and while part of Nyx is surprised by how easy it was to convince the other man, part of him isn't.

Because the purpose of the mission, _Glauca's_ purpose, was to get a Glaive killed and sow discord among their forces, make them angry and bitter and divided. And at the end of the day, Nyx getting killed in the line of duty would accomplish that just as well as Crowe getting killed.

Nyx once again resists the temptation to just stab the traitorous bastard in the face and instead thanks Drautos for the assignment, assuring him that he won't let his commander down even though the words taste like blood and ashes on his tongue.

"I'm sure you won't, Ulric," Titus Drautos says, clapping him lightly on the shoulder before striding off down the hall and Nyx has to take a moment to just _breathe_.

 _This is fine_ , he tells himself firmly, waiting until Drautos vanishes after turning the corner before he allows himself to start walking down the hallway because he honestly doesn't trust himself to not warp after the other man and explode into violence if he's in Nyx's line of sight for any longer.

It's almost frightening, the depth of his wrath. It's the betrayal that's the cause, he thinks.

Because he's always hated General Glauca, just as he hates all the military leaders of the Niflheim Empire. But finding out that Drautos _is_ Glauca has elevated his generic hatred into something infinitely more personal, because now it's a betrayal. It's realizing that someone he had trusted implicitly, someone he had looked up to and followed loyally, was not only not worthy of that trust but also willfully abusing it.

And not just Nyx's trust, either. Titus Drautos had gained the trust of King Regis himself, and then killed the very man he'd sworn an oath of allegiance to.

It makes Nyx furious, even as his eyes sting with tears of mingled frustration and grief over the betrayal and what will happen if he doesn't find a way to change the course of history.

And perhaps Nyx should try to bury these feelings, should try to proceed with a clear head and limited emotions because he's already killed Glauca once and that should be enough.

It should be enough, but it's _not_.

Because he's living through all of it again, only this time he's changed up the script. Because yes, he'd killed Glauca in that other timeline and yes, he'd summoned the Old Wall and yes, he'd fought an impossible battle to give Libertus and Lunafreya enough time to escape. Because yes, he'd died but he'd also won, and that should have been enough.

But here he's anyway, in the past, and he's doesn't understand _why_ but it's not an opportunity he can squander regardless of what caused it.

So he takes a deep breath, sifts through the raging maelstrom of his emotions until he has them sorted into a more manageable internal squall, and then leaves on what's supposed to be a mission that ends in his death.

(He finds himself very much looking forward to seeing the look on Drautos's face when he returns to the Citadel afterwards.)


End file.
